I decided to change the game's interface. All cursors are colored and fully animated when moving on screen. Panels, buttons and display text boxes are all transparent blue with opaque yellow text. Developed a screenshot of the current location when a game is saved too (thanks to Crimson Wizard & Khris for helping me out). Here's a quick peek at the new interface (Note the room is not complete yet):

I've also created more 2D animations and in-game cut scenes. With Tabata and CaptainD's generous help, this happened:

[embed=640,390]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TME8DslpjSs[/embed]

Last but not least... I've finished a few characters' portraits as well, and of course had to spend 9 hours per character to complete each's 8 directions walk cycles hopefully in my next update I will be showing deeper thoughts about the characters of the game.

Looks excellent! I like the return to classic SF, almost Assimovian feel that I'm getting from it. Refreshing in a game/film landscape where sci-fi tends to be used for its trappings and backdrop, rather than taken seriously.

From now on I'll be introducing one character in each update. But first let me talk a little about the numbers above. As you may have noticed the Scripting and Puzzles are the same values from the last update. This doesn't mean I haven't scripted or wrote puzzles, it's the contrary, I wrote tons on lines of code and many many puzzles specially with the need of alternative solutions for the non linear nature of Epoch. It's just that writing puzzles opens more events and probabilities to add more to the game as all developers know. So I decided to keep my estimates the way they are.

Now for the actual update, this is Kat:

She's a single mom, working as Marsi-3 engines coolers assistant engineer. Depending on your actions in the game, there is a chance that Alex and you break up because of Kat. Characters in Epoch are very diverse and have mood swings. You talk and treat them good, you trigger some events. You insult or treat them bad, you trigger other events. Your choices could also allow two NPCs ally together or hate each other. Some actions are reversible and some aren't. More information on Kat Here.

Let's say you are now facing a locked door, a safe or a box... There are several ways to get them opened: If you know that a character has the key and you've been 'nice' to them, there's a chance you can get the key (of course it's not that easy to get them happy to give you the key.. at least not only by talking nice to them...) OR, you can pick the lock. And I'm not doing Hero's Quest lock picking thing, it's real lock picking methods.

I've made a room specifically for that purpose, of course each lock in the game has a different randomly generated combination so every time the game is restarted the locks are different... Locks usually need a very sensitive ear to hear the soft clicks of the mechanisms inside them, so for those players with hearing problems I am using the shake screen function instead.

Right now, I'm drawing backgrounds for the ancient city Swenett (currently called Aswan in south Egypt). And NO it's not all pyramids, temples and half naked pharaohs, It's a very advanced city with sky scrapers. I won't reveal more now so I won't give details on the story... Here's Carter chatting with an old deli owner:

Last but not least, as I probably already mentioned before, dialogs and topics with the same character change depending on where you are while talking to them. For instance, talking to Aziz while standing next to him gives different topics and responses than when talking to him while Lying on the bed. Also, if you insult him his responses would -of course- be different:

Spent the last couple of weeks with audio editing. This is really fun and worth every second! Literally brings the game to life.

This is Moon, he's an engineer at Marsi-3, although he was diagnosed with Down Syndrome he showed higher IQ levels than his colleagues and aced his Engineering School back on Earth. Moon is well known for his flawless memory. He keeps changing and creating new complicated codes for his systems and databases. Better keep him distracted than having to go through hard times figuring out codes on your own.

With many thanks to Tabata and CaptainD, I give you a little teaser:[embed=640,390]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ugzFGp01smw[/embed]

This is Aziz, he is the pneumatic technician on Marsi-3. Always 'almost rushing' to fix any problem with the system. Aziz's boyfriend is hundreds of miles away on Titan. Communications seem to be a problem due to solar activity within the region along with Jupiter's magnetic field. He is coping with this situation by playing his favorite music instrument: The Recorder. As a botanist and with the right technology, you can almost grow anything anytime for Aziz to smoke and get the information you might need.

While working on different aspects of Epoch, I came across a few points I haven't dealt with in my previous games. So I thought writing articles would help me grasp the ideas I'm adopting for the current project in production:

Now the fun stuff! Remember how we used to get lost in the endless deserts of King's Quest V?Well, since you can take a spacewalk in Epoch and (so far) wander around Titan, you can get lost there as well. But if you have the right inventory item you can always leave a mark behind you at different xy positions in order to keep track.[embed=640,390]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmuNONLE6zY[/embed]

Passwords, codes and different combinations are used in Epoch as well. They are all randomly generated in the beginning of the game (in some cases more than once when a character has to reset a panel over and over...) ALL passwords and codes are in-game obtainable. If keeping a record is a problem and you don't have a pen and paper nearby. Then the notebook is your friend:[embed=640,390]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG-Df1CFri4[/embed]

Example of a randomly generated password: (note that this step of the puzzle has 2 more alternative solutions as well, and the whole puzzle has an alternative solution too)[embed=640,390]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dUM0N-OzCQ4[/embed]

A short teaser video:[embed=640,390]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHbn4Za9Kec[/embed]

and:

Yolanda

Yolanda is the communications engineer on Marsi-3. She is responsible for all inter-planetary messages sent and received to and from Marsi-3. She doesn't have an 'office' aboard the ship. She keeps wandering around Marsi-3's rooms and corridors making sure everything is under control. Event-wise, Yolanda is a unique character in Epoch. Whenever she's in a room with another NPC, you can always invite her to a three-way chat.

Life is not always lovey-dovey. What do you think have happened between our couple that made Carter back away from hugging Alex before departing Marsi-3? [embed=640,390]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6aXY8HNQzM[/embed]